The Whisler-Wilson Ranch, a stunning piece of wildlands above Point Lobos, has been purchased by the Monterey Peninsula Park District for $4 million, officials said Tuesday.

The 317-acre property lies between the park district's Palo Corona Regional Park and the state's Point Lobos Ranch State Park.

The park district used $3 million in state habitat conservation funds and a $1 million Coastal Conservancy grant to buy the property from the Big Sur Land Trust.

The land trust acquired the ranchland, south of Carmel and inland from Highway 1, in 2010, also for $4 million, from descendants of the A.M. Allan family, which first protected Point Lobos from development in the 19th century.

The land trust said 107 acres of the ranchland was transferred Tuesday and the remaining acreage will be transferred by 2015.

"The property's location adjacent to Palo Corona Regional Park will finally connect these properties and develop a vision for managed public access, trails, resource conservation and education programs that will serve to integrate the property into the larger parklands landscape," said Bill Leahy, executive director of the land trust, in a prepared statement.

The land trust first acquired the property using a revolving acquisition fund established in 2004 that allows it to quickly provide bridge financing for important land acquisitions, the organization said.

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The added acerage will bring the size of Palo Corona Regional Park to about 4,600 acres.

Leahy said the regional park is now open on a permit basis, and the goal is to fully open it this year.

He said the land trust is working with the park district, Point Lobos Foundation and state parks on plans to "create a seamless" stretch of 6,000 acres of public parkland in the hills above Point Lobos.